London Marathon 2019 Training Recap

It's 1am on Monday 29th April and I'm sat in my kitchen at my laptop writing this still in a slight state of shock from the race of my life the day before. It might be the lingering effects of the race-day caffiene, but it's more likely the combination of the intensity and emotion of Sunday's running in the 2019 London Marathon still coursing through my body is keeping me awake (with a good dose of muscle soreness to boot!) . So i might as well jot down a bit on how things panned out, starting with a look at my training and build up through the spring.

Going in to this race I'd had a near perfect training cycle, starting back in January with a few weeks building up from the general largess of the Christmas holidays to solid 110-117 mile a week training by the end of the month. For the first time in my running career I felt capable of running as much as I wanted, just as long as the effort was kept easy and I could fit it in to work and family life. This meant getting up at 5am (and earlier sometimes) became the norm and double digit runs went frequent (most days, usually early am). At the start of February I was fortunate to get to go on an England Athletics Marathon Development squad training weekend in a snowy Forest of Dean. this really helped focus my mind on what was important to enhance my training & recovery and it was a great opportunity to meet many runners of a similar caliber and exchange training ideas. 

EA Marathon Dev Squad functional exercises demo!

Snowy Long Sunday Run in the Forest of Dean

A staple of my training is a 70min steady run at less than marathon heart rate (taken to be 167-168bpm) and as marathon training progresses I would expect to see the average pace on these runs slowly drop. It was an encouraging sign when the first one (mid Feb) came in at low 6min miles and improved to running under 6min miles within a few weeks.

At the start of March I was priveleged to be selected to run for Hampshire in the Inter-Counties 20 mile match as part of the Essex 20 near Southend. I used this as a test of my marathon fitness, with the aim to keep the effort below marathon levels to minimise the fatigue, minimise recovery and hence reduce impact on the following weeks training. Despite it being a windy day things worked out well, with my pace coming out around 2:30 marathon levels and the average heart rate of 163bpm. A PB of 1:54:50 and team silver medal for Hampshire made for a rewarding day!

Team silver for both the Hampshire ladies and men at the inter-counties match

Two weeks later I was hoping my legs were largely over the 20 mile race with the Fleet Half in my schedule. This is a good pre-London tester with a strong field but a slightly undulating course. It turned out to be hard run, but pleasing to get the miles down into, And below, the 5:30's consistantly and finish with a PB of 72:35.

Trying to be fleet at Fleet!

As April finally came around I started to switch my focus to persuading my legs to go a bit faster. I had been doing strides (i.e 6-8x30 secs fast but with good form) frequently in my easy runs, with the aim to improve my brains ability to command my leg muscles to go faster, without inducing much fatigue. The ultimate goal is to make running fast feel easier. To further enhance my leg speed in the last month before the marathon I did a couple of extended speed work sessions running 26x200m fast then 200m float/cruise, which resulted in 10km times of 36:15 and 34:50.

My final race effort before the big day was the Salisbury 10M race 2 weeks before London. From past experience I've felt that a strong run at Salisbury is indicative of good fitness for London, as the course has a few moderate climbs which test your leg strength. I set off well with the first 2 miles under 5:30 pace, but then my legs had other ideas and decided that a pace more around 5:45-50/M was suitable! I couldn't really push my heart up to 10mile race levels, but I was definitely running over marathon effort. Finishing 4th was still satisfying, but I was a minute down on my time from 2018. On reflection I thing I might have been flirting with a low level virus (one had be doing the rounds in our family the weeks before). It was time to taper and see what I could do at London.....

In the last 3 weeks leading up to the big race day I decided to plan for a possible repeat of 2018's hot weather and introduce heat adapation into my training. This was split into two types, Active and passive. The active adapation involved getting on a treadmill wearing far too much running clothing and getting a good sweat on for 30-40mins. To supplement this I also did passive adapation, usually straight after the treadmill run, by spending up to 30mins in a sauna at 100+degC. The sauna really gets the sweat rate going and can elevate heart rate to easy run levels within 20 or so minutes. Over the course of the 3 final weeks I managed to log 7 overdressed treadmill runs and nearly 7 hours of sauna time! As it turns out marathon race day was near perfect weather conditions, but I still believe I got some strong positive benefits from the heat adapation training. Read more about the theory here on irunfar.com)

So going into final taper week, I had run 1600 miles in 16weeks, my biggest mileage ever for a marathon training campaign (helped by a late Easter!), had no injuries/illness/work interruptions and was primed and ready for the streets of London once again.... RIght going to try for some sleep now, race report to follow shortly!

Video : RR10 Summer XC League - A Runner's Eye-view!

Every year eleven Hampshire running clubs congregate on 11 Wednesday evenings from May until August at various off-road venues in the south of the county to contest the RR10 race league. Originally conceived as a inter-club road racing series (hence the 'RR' title!) in c.1983, my club the New Forest Runners was one of the founders and the club continues the long tradition of taking part in the league 35 years later. Malcolm Price has written an excellent short history of the RR10 league which can be found on the league website at http://www.rr10.org.uk/RR10history.pdf . Set on a variety of off-road courses and measuring between 4 and 5 miles long the races are hugely popular and fiercely contested throughout the field of runners! It was an RR10 race (Deerleap Enclosure near Ashurst) where I first donned a NFR vest in anger, coming in 74th place. RR10s are all about finishing position, not time...

New Forest Runners RR10 Team c.2011

Despite what it might look like I am far from being in the lead!

In my first RR10 season I was 29th overall (you need to complete a minimum of 6 races to get an individual ranking). I only got in 5 races in 2012 (2x10th, 2x13th & a 16th), but in 2013 came 9th overall in the mens standings (7,8,9,10,10&18th). I missed out on RR10 fun for the next 4 years and finally made a return this year. My results have been a bit varied but I ended up =10th with 3rd, 18th, 13th, 8th, 9th, and 18th. This was mostly due to trying to combine mid-week XC racing with higher mileage training for the pair of 50k trail races I was planning to do!

The final race of 2018 (and every league) was held at the IBM Park in Hursley. Whilst definitely 'light' on the cross country levels (read no mud, lots of gravel paths) it's a great race to end each year with. The turn out is usually high as clubs muster as many runners as possible to hopefully improve or defend team positions in the overall standings. This year I had very low expectations of my abilities, since I'd raced a trail 50k at the Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 event only 3 days earlier (blog to come on that one soon...), so my legs were in far from ideal condition to say the least! As a result I decided to just run round with as much effort as my legs would allow and film the race from the runner's perspective at the same time. As it turns out although my legs didn't feel wonderful I still managed to coax a reasonable run out of them finishing in 20th place.

So here are a couple of videos of most of the race (split up as YouTube has a 15min limit). As it's a 3 lap course I think I got a fair amount of the field into the footage and hopefully a few more in the section at the finish line taken after I'd stopped.... enjoy and feel free to share with running club friends!

Summer Running - Serpent Trail 50k Race 2018

Things have been ticking along running wise for the last month or so. My plans for this summer were to generally chill out, do more trail running and do the odd ultra distance race... Looking forward to the autumn I've got my eye on a 2nd marathon, which will probably be Bournemouth in early October. It was going to be the York marathon, but a overseas work trip rendered that option unviable. Bournemouth should have the advantage of being a qualifying event for the 2019 England Age Group (Masters) Marathon Championships, this is still TBC but has been the case last year and this year. It's also very close to home, so easy for race-day!

But back to this summer, which has been quite warm.... Post London marathon I had my eye on doing some longer off-road racing to get a good change of training emphasis after months of tarmac bashing in the spring. I've run the 50km race of the Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 event a couple of times in the past and that was definitely on the cards in mid-August. Then via Alton Sports I'd found out about the Serpent Trail Races organised by Freedom Racing. The races are based on the Serpent Trail, a long distance footpath on the South Downs in West Sussex which 'snakes' it's way from Haslemere to Petersfield via Petworth and Midhurst. Freedom Racing organise a 100k race which does the full length of the footpath, a 50k starting halfway in Petworth, a half marathon starting near Midhurst and then a 10k on the final stretch into Petersfield. I considered the 100k option but decided instead to go for the 50k to see what level of fitness/endurance I would have ahead of doing the Salisbury 50k five weeks later.

The Serpent Trail 50k is billed as relatively fast and not too hilly, with the only major ascent with the first couple of miles. After that the course does undulate but nothing particularly taxing.



In the couple of weeks leading up to the race it became increasingly obvious that race day (Saturday 7th July) was going to be fairly warm with the forecast hovering around 25-27 Deg C. My kit choice focused on keeping cool, hydration and foot comfort. I have a Salomon Advanced Skin 3 (12 litre) Ultra Vest which can carry 2x500ml soft flasks on the front and take a hydration bladder on the back. This also enabled me to carry the mandatory kit consisting of;

• Charged mobile phone
• Simple 1st aid kit
• Waterproof jacket (Inov8 Stormshell)
• Foil blanket
• Basic nutrition (couple of gels)
• 1 litre of water (I actually started with 2.5L)

Given the weather forecast the jacket and space blanket did seem a bit excessive, but with a final cut-off set at midnight (from a 10am start) some people could be out on the course well into the night so some protection in case of emergency could be a life saver. I'd practiced running in hot conditions without any top on under the Salomon technical vest in my long run-commutes (see below) so i knew this would likely be ok for the race. Although I did coat my shoulders in plenty of Sport Shield silicon anti-chafe. Mizuno race shorts were picked for comfort and lightweight. As the ground conditions were hard and dry I went with my Adidas Boston Boost road shoes. There were a few stretches of tarmac in the 2nd half of the race, so I figured it was going to be better to be comfortable for those bits and put up with the odd slip or loss of traction on the looser sections of  trails. My kit was rounded off with a white cap (sun reflection!) shades, sunscreen and a packet of Saltstick Fastchew electroloyte tablets. The tablets turned out to be very useful!

Since the Endure24 weekend in June I've been running pretty much normally averaging between 60 to 80 miles a week mostly easy runs, with a few short races including; a couple of RR10 cross countries, the Sway 5 mile race and the odd parkrun. On a side note it was the 1st time I'd run the Sway race since I ran it as my first ever race 8 years ago in 2010, back then I was 104th in 41:46. Fast forward to 2018 and I did a little better coming 2nd in just under 30 minutes! I had hoped to in with a shout of the win, but the combination of an over enthusiastic run on the Friday before and an in-form friend Adam meant it didn't happen! Aside from the racing the only other 'interesting' runs I did were a series of morning run-commutes in across the New Forest from home near Lymington to my work in Eastleigh. To start off I got as far as Ashhurst railway station (about 14 miles), but the next week managed to push myself the full distance (just over a marathon) after getting to Totton station to find that there was a 30 minute wait for the next train so decided to crack on with the final 7-8 miles across Southampton. The next week I did the full distance again on foot, but this time via the Hythe Ferry and up the River Itchen. Normally cross-Forest running requires a detailed knowledge of which bits are dry and where the bogs are, which usually limits route choices going towards Hythe/Marchwood. However the total lack of rain in the past weeks means the Forest is bone dry and you can run almost anywhere you want in the open areas!

Anyway, back to the Serpent Trail.... The race was held on Saturday 7th July with registration at Petersfield Rugby Club (the finish) and then the competitors get bussed to the start just outside Petworth. When I arrived Scott from Alton Sports was busy unloading his van, I gave him a hand while we chatted about the race and stuff. Then it was time to register and get my gear on. The start was at 10am and the day was already heating up before we boarded the buses for the 45min drive to the start.

The start was a small strip of grass along the road where the coaches parked up. We weren't there for long, a quick race briefing from Tom the Race Director and we were off down the road for about 100 yards and the right straight up the biggest hill of the whole race! With no idea about the rest of the field I just struck out at a comfortable pace and waited to see who did what. After about half a mile of running on my own at the front another runner came up alongside me. This was Floyd Ratciffe who had come up from Cornwall to do the race (the race organisers are from down that way). We chatted for a mile or two before I started to pull in front and settled into watching out for trail markers, which was a circular disc with a purple arrow containing a snake pointing in the direction of the trail. In addition there were extra course markers placed for the race.I had the course loaded into the Suunto Spartan watch which I'd borrowed from Scott to try out (ahead of getting a new Sunnto '9' watch, more on that in a future post....). This helped a lot with way-finding as the course had a lot of twists and turns which meant I needed to be vigilant with where I was going. At just after 4 miles I missed the turning down a footpath off the road I was running down a check of the watch route line showed I was diverging from the course. I back-tracked a couple of hundred yards and found the trail marker, 2nd place had caught up with me in the meantime and he ran along behind me for another mile or two as we passed through the village of Fittleworth. I had spent a bit of time studying the course on the Ordanance Survey maps website, so had a good idea about a few of the key turns. this defintely helped at times in the race, but it was impossible to memorise the whole route so I was heavily reliant on the watch GPS route. Thankfully I had no other major navigation issues. The race had 5 checkpoints at 13, 23, 31, 39 and 46km. I only stopped at the first two to 'dib' my race chip, as I was carrying enough water not need to take on more. Although in hindsight I wished I'd stopped to use some to cool down...

The temperature in the first hour or so of the race felt quite managable, helped by decent sections of the course being in the shade of trees. However where we came out into the open in was clear the sun was going to be very hot. The temperature was easier over 30DegC and there were a few parts which ran across open sandy heathland where it felt really baking, which combined with the tendency for these parts to be sandy as well made for hard going, By the time I got to checkpoint three at 31k I'd finished the water in my soft flasks, although I still had a reasonable amount in my back bladder, and had had several periods where I'd seriously wondered if I was going to make it to the finish. I stopped at the checkpoint (SW of Midhurst) which was the first CP on the half marathon route as well. I doused myself with water (including dunking my cap), refilled the flasks and had some Coke. Setting off again I felt a bit revived and now had some company while running as I caught up with the back of the Half Marathon field. The other thing that really seemed to be helping was eating Saltstick Fastchews, which are a chewable tablet that is formulated to closely resemble the electrolyte profile lost in sweat with; sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium. The recommended intake is 1-2 per hour for running, so I figured a pack of 10 would be fine for the 50k. These tablets turned out to be a bit of a revolation... I starting taking them early on the race and in the mid to latter stages I reckoned I could really feel the difference in my legs after taking one! Although they are quite salty to taste they have a pleasant lemon-lime flavouring which covers the saltiness pretty well.

The last 10 miles from CP 3 to the finish was very hard work, to the point which I had to slow to a fast(ish) walk in places. I think this was due to the combination of the external temperature and the heat generated by me internally gradually causing my muscles to seize up. I didn't cramp up thankfully, but the resistance in my legs got worse and worse. I continued to reel in the half race runners, although as I worked my way up through the field increasingly I was exchanging run/walk sections with them.

The final CP (no.5) was around 5k from the finish and there was no sign of any other 50k runners behind me. I took a decent stop for a final cool down and drink. I didn't have anything to eat at the CPs, having brought a couple of my own gels to carry, but there was a nice range of fruit and other snacks available at each one. The last stretch involved a couple of sections running along through the middle of cornfields before hitting the last section of road into the outskirts of Petersfield. the course finished running along a nice wooded path (which seem to go on forever!) and up onto the pitch of the Rugby club. I was loudly welcomed into the finish by my family, crossing the line in 1st (and a new course record) in a little over 4hrs 10mins.

Overall it was a great race, the course is generally very interesting, with not too much road running involved and some lovely woodland singletrack trail sections. The organisation by Freedom Racing was great and very smooth. It definitely ranks as one of the hardest races I've ever done but that was purely down to the weather conditions on the day. I highly recommend giving it (or the 100k, half marathon or 10k!) a go. More details can be found at http://www.serpenttrailrace.com/

Endure24 2018 - A Festival for Runners! (Including Highlights Video)

Endure24 is a running event which until a month or so ago I’d heard only the odd comment about or seen on someone’s Strava feed. I had little idea of what the event was about. When I joined the Alton Sports Ambassadors program recently I was invited to an Alton Sports/Mizuno preview day at Wasing Park, near Reading, the site of the Southern leg of Endure24 (there’s a Northern edition at Bramham Park in Leeds at the end of June). We got to try out some Mizuno trail shoes and take them for a run around the race course, guided by Graham Johnson, Marketing Manager for Mizuno UK. During the course of the day Graham introduced us to the overall layout and format of Endure24. The event is a 24-hour team (or solo) race on an 8k off-road loop, with the aim to complete as many laps as possible between 12pm Saturday and 12pm Sunday on the race weekend. Teams range in size from 2 up to 8, either male, female or mixed. The course is a mixture of (a bit) tarmac, forest tracks and single-track (some a bit twisty and technical through the woods). The whole event is structured a bit like a music festival, in fact it touts itself as a ‘Glastonbury for Runners’, with fields full of runners tents surrounding the central race village. The race village has food, drink, entertainment and shops, as well as a giant fire pit for keeping warm at night! During the trip up to Wasing Park, Graham very kindly offered me a place on one of Mizuno’s three teams at this year’s event, so I got to give it a go myself…

The original plan had been to go with the whole family up to Wasing Park and camp together overnight on the Friday, but due to my youngest daughter have a suspected chicken pox outbreak it ended up just being me and my son Cameron who went. This turned out to probably not be bad thing as our campsite for the weekend was right next to the race village which was very noisy with the Friday night party in full swing. However, this being a running event, the DJ shut-down at 11pm prompt so that everyone could get the chance of a decent night’s sleep ahead of the race the next day. The upside of our camping location was that the race course went right past the front of the tent so we were immersed in the race for the whole weekend! 

Team Mizuno camp for the weekend

On arrival on Friday a couple of hours was spent putting our ridiculously big tent up (a mission on your own!) and getting all the kit stashed inside. I picked up some nice running kit from Mizuno for the race, including a pair of Wave Hayate 4 trail shoes which according to Mizuno are “Designed and built to give you both performance and explosive pace. The low-slung, aggressive lightweight trail shoe doesn’t compromise on grip or protection. The Michelin outsole gives you incredible grip uphill and swift movement for technical downhill runs” I’d never run in these shoes before, but had got on well with the Wave Mujin 4 shoes at the course preview day. Putting them on and wearing for a few hours told me that they would be fine for at least my first lap. As it turned out they were excellent and I wore them for all of my time out on the course with zero problems and plenty of grip on the loose surfaces. 

The race village (Friday evening)

Saturday morning dawned and it was time to start prepping for the race. You need to be a bit careful about what you eat and when over the weekend. It’s very important to keep fuelled up, but care is required to make sure you don’t end up going out for a lap shortly after consuming a bacon roll or the like! I made up porridge at our tent a good 3-4hours pre-race to ensure it was well digested by the time the race kicked off. Our teams were still in a slight state of flux up to an hour before things kicked off and we held a team briefing at 11am to confirm who was running with who and it what order! I had been given the lead-out position in team ‘Hayate’ running with Toby, Scott, Simon (all from Alton Sports), Tim, Rhys (both from Silva UK), Rob and Hannah (both from Mizuno UK). By this point the sun was out and warming things up rapidly so I opted for a light weight vest for lap number 1. Lining up on the start line, the DJ was pumping out Fat Boy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now” and it was amping the field up nicely! Following the pre-run brief by the RD the gun was fired on the stroke of noon and we were off. 

The start line

Ready to go on the line!

The golden rule of Endure is to not run your first lap like a race, but it felt like one for the first 400m or so, the spectators (50/50 runners and supporters) were great and they carried the field down the finish straight and left up the road towards the trees. The course has 2 decent length hills, the first being less than ½ mile from the start, it soon brought the pace down. After only a mile or so I was joined by City of Salisbury runner (and Salisbury 10 Race Director) Stuart Holloway and we fell into a similar pace. Stuart was running in a team of 5, so definitely didn’t want to over-cook his opener. We ran round the rest of the lap together having a natter which kept the lid on our pace. Coming back into the race village we looped around the back of the solo/pairs camping area and our own camp site before closing the finish line and spotting the next team mate (Toby) to hand over the red wristband to. Lap 1 came in at 31:12 (6:25/M), given the amount of effort required for this I was hopeful that I’d be able to do the rest of my laps at a similar sort of pace.

As I was part of a team of 8 I then had around 4 ½ hours before my next lap was due, so I got some food and chilled out with Milly and the kids (Chickenpox scare turned out to be false so she came up with Isabelle before the start on Saturday morning). There was a nice kid’s activity area hosted by ‘Living Paintings’ a charity which published ‘touch to see’ books for blind children. There was also a couple of story time reading sessions in the big Mizuno marquee, so there was plenty for little ones to do. 

The family heading home mid-afternoon and I got ready for lap 2. At 4:30 I picked up the team wristband from Simon and set off on the course. My legs were a little cranky to start with but soon got going, it was still very warm, with the trees blocking any of the cooling breeze felt out in the open of the race village. Lap 2 was straight forward as I started to learn the terrain, although the second big hill of the loop (aka ‘Heartbreak’) was a lot tougher this time round and really sapped my pace. Lap 2 was pretty much the same as lap 1 time-wise in 31:07 and I finished feeling like I could manage a few more! 



Back at Alton Sports base camp in the Race Village I grabbed a pasta and bolognaise for dinner and hatched an over-night plan. We swapped Toby’s c.1:30am lap for my c.5:30am one, so I would do a double in the middle of the night but could then get to bed, have a longer rest and not have to lever myself out of bed quite so early Sunday morning.

Start/finish straight & wirstband handover area

By the time my 3^rd lap came around at around 9:00pm it was well on the way to getting dark and runner lights were mandatory after 8pm. I’d brought a variety of head torches (and the odd MTB light) with me, all of which I’ve run with at some point in the past and hadn’t made up my mind which one to take out for my first dark lap. As it turns out I didn’t need to worry about choosing as Tim Young from Silva UK kindly offered me the use of one of their Trail Speed 3 headlights, which, at a maximum output of 800 lumens, massively outstripped the power of any of my lights! The only downside of the light was the chunky battery on the back, but the addition of an over-top strap and a back to front running cap made it secure enough to run with at speed. 

To start with I didn’t need the light on anything other than LOW mode as I ran up the tarmac of the first hill, but once on the dirt track and under trees I needed a bit more light so flicked it on to the twin LED FLOOD mode. The track lit up like I was driving in a rally car! This was a serious light…I alternated the power setting from LOW to FLOOD/MAX depending on the technicality of the terrain, the brightest setting was also handy to let slower runners I was coming up behind them, it was definitely more polite than shouting! By the end of the lap I was convinced this was the light I’d need later on when it got really dark…. Lap 3 wasn’t quite my fastest (31:3x), but it was definitely the best feeling so far, probably helped by the dropping temperature now the sun had set.



 Despite everyone’s natural assumption that their lap times would slow down as the event went on, we actually kept quite close to the predicted timings. The trick was to go find the next runner after you’d come in from a lap and handed over so that they had the heads up that they would need to be ready to get out on the course in the next 30-40mins. Between lap 3 and starting 4+5 I kept the food intake simple with a pot of instant noodles and a banana back in my tent. I also donned a couple of layers as it was starting to feel chilly (the noodles helped warm me up too). Despite it now been dark the temperature was still muggy for my third lap and I came back in really damp with sweat, so the big fire bowl in the middle of the race village came in very handy to dry my vest out! With most of the course being in dense woodland the temperature while running was still very reasonable, so I wanted to stick with my Mizuno vest which had been very comfortable and cool for the laps so far.

 At 1:28am Simon came back in to hand over for my ‘graveyard shift’ double lap. Now the Silva Trail Speed 3 light really came into its own, giving me the confidence to keep the pace up. Lap 4 was ok but slower than the previous three, Heartbreak Hill was definitely tough going this time round and it was tricky picking out the tree roots through the twisty single-track of the ‘Fairy Woods’. If lap 4 was an effort, lap 5 was a borderline slog, my legs were starting to go and I stumbled a few times on the looser sections. Two lots of ‘HB Hill’ in short order really sapped my legs and I struggled to rally them for the last mile and a half back to the finish. I got round the two laps in just under 1hr 6mins and was very glad to get back in to the finish and hand over to Tim. 



I rewarded myself for the late night efforts with a large slices of Rocky Road & Carrot Cake from the 24hour catering tent. A quick check of the live results table showed us as 5^th large mixed team and then I bid Scott from Alton Sports goodnight (he was due out after Tim) and headed back to our camp. I gave Hannah (who was due out after Scott) a shout to make sure she was awake, made her a coffee to keep awake while running(!) and then got my head down just after 3:30am to the gentle sound of feet running on grass past the tent with the first glimmers of dawn on the horizon.

I was awake again just after seven, I’ve never been much good at lie-ins in tents! It was a greyish morning with a little mist in the air. Although I was not down to run until later in the morning (having skipped my early am lap in the rota) I was cautious with eating in case I had to get out earlier than expected. So I just had a couple of bananas and a good strong coffee while simultaneously watching runners finishing their laps and the Comrades Ultra marathon streaming live from South Africa. 

Breakfast+Comrades+Runner Spectating!

After doing as much kit/tent packing as possible (I had brought far too much stuff and a very big tent!) I got back over into the race village to check out how things were going. By and large our team was still running to schedule, with only one slight hiccup in the small hours with one runner finishing a lap and having to go hunting for the team member to handover to… A spot of lap schedule tweaking and I was down to run out last and 40^th lap starting about 15mins before the finishing gun at 12pm. We were still in 5^th place and, saving any major slow down/issue, looking likely to stay there. I took over the team armband from Toby at 11:43 and set off to see what my legs were now capable of. It took a few hundred metres for them to get into gear but then they felt pretty good, even going up the first hill! I ticked off a sub 6min mile three (nice stretch just before you hit Heartbreaker) and managed to get the next mile in 6:35, despite the hill. I ran in the last 0.8 of a mile at 6:06/M to clock my fastest lap of the weekend in 30:20.

Overall it was an amazing weekend, the whole event has a wonderful atmosphere. It’s really great for families too, whether just visiting for the day or camping over the weekend. The good weather definitely helped, but even if it hadn’t been I think it would still be a lot of fun (just need to bring lots of running kit). Many thanks to the awesome guys at Alton Sports and Mizuno UK for giving me the opportunity to experience Endure24, we had a great time as a team! Also thank you to Tim Young from Silva for the loan of the rally car like head torch! I’ll definitely be looking to come back for another go next year, I’m tempted by the idea of doing it ‘solo’ and aiming to get into the 100mile (20 lap) club…. 

To finish up on Endure24 2018, here's a little compalation of video clips from the weekend, including an attempt at an 'on-the-run' interview with Stuart Holloway of CoSARC & some of our first lap chit-chat!

May, a Busy Month Post Marathon!....and a Special Annoucement

I've had a busy 6 or so weeks since the fun in the blistering (!) heat of the London Marathon.

Only 10 days after the marathon I was lining up in the New Forest for round #2 of the summer RR10  Hampshire running clubs XC series at Stoney Cross. Usually this is just to chalk up one of the 6 required races to get an overall position in the series, as my legs are still trashed from London. However this year having not gone through the marathon at anything like 100% effort the recovery was a lot swifter. That said I was fully expecting a quickish start (the first mile is all downhill!) followed by a rapid decceleration and hang on for the majority of the 4.5ish miles. My first mile was quick in 5:21 but so were quite a few others, leaving me in around 7-8th place at the bottom of the first of the two big climbs. Miraculously my legs were better going up hill and I had got passed around 3-4 people by the time the top was reached. I think I was in 4th place by this point. I was running with Mike Gregory from Stubbington Green and we had Tom Cully from Southampton in our sights. Mike had the edge over me coming down the hill again through the 3rd mile and we both got past Tom. I thought Mike was away at this point (plus I was still expecting my legs to give up, especially with the slog up the second hill in the last mile!), but I managed to keep reasonably close to him and coming up the final climb I wound him in and got past. I was sure he would reciprocate the move once we got on the flat(ish) section into the finish, but I'd got a big enough gap to keep 3rd place all the way to the line, despite some tricky boggy bits that needed negotiating. 1st & 2nd place, both from Romsey Roadrunners, were well away in front, but I was really pleased with my best ever RR10 finish position so soon after the marathon!



10 days later on Sunday13th May it was time for my traditional London recovery guaging run, the Lymington RNLI 10k. The normal style is to run a fast first 5km to Keyhaven and then have to slow down as my legs remind me that I ran a hard marathon only a few weeks before. In previous years I've done quie well in the race despite the proximity to London, with a win in 2014, 3rd in 2013 and 5th in 2012. Finish position tends to rely very much on who turns up though... The course is lovely, being multi-terrain including a couple of miles along the Keyhaven & Pennington Marshes seawall.

At the start there wasn't anyone massively quicker than me visible with local runner Adam Jundi and Totton Runner James Dean being the likely competition....

We got through the first 2 miles are a clippy 5:29 pace with myself Adam and James at the front by the time we hit the gravel track on the seawall at Keyhaven harbour. At that point Adam decided to push ahead and my legs couldn't respond, James went after Adam, leaving me in 3rd.

1-2-3 running on the Seawall in the Lymington 10k

Which is how it stayed until we got into the last half mile, then I realised I was slowly creeping up on James and by the time we turned back into Woodside park with around 400m to go I was getting close. After a couple of hundred metres across grass the course pops through a gap in a hedge and into the finishing area. You then have to run up to an oak tree, do a near on 180 degree turn around said tree and then it's less than 100m straight to the finish. Approaching the tree I was really close to James and by taking the 'racing line' (wide in-hit the apex-wide out) I nipped past and into 2nd place. Unfortunately I didn't have enough sprint left in my legs and James squeezed back past to beat me by a second. Still a 34:30 clocking was great for the course and Adam was only 10 seconds in front at the line, so it was a good close race in the end.



Over the first May bank holiday we went on the first of two family camping trips in May, heading down to The Purbecks for a long weekend camping at Norden Farm (great farm based campsite close to Corfe). I got the oppotunity to get in a great 16 mile mostly trail run trhough Corfe to Chapman's Pool on the coast, along the South West Coast Footpath to Kimmeridge Bay and then back inland via corfe again. It wa a stunning day, but fairly warm and with some fun hills to climb, especially on the coast path! I took some video along the way and will hopefully get it uploaded to YouTube soon....

May had another very important event.... Some time in late 2017 Penny Malcolm called a semi-secret meeting of like minded people one evening in The House Martin pub in New Milton. The agenda? How to satisfy the thirst of various small children to run 2km quite early on a Sunday morning! Our children love doing junior parkrun on Sunday mornings, but the closest to us are either at Moors Valley Country Park or Riverside Park in Southampton, both at least a half hour drive away (which makes it an early start, especially with multiple children!). So a plan was hatched to bring junior parkrun to the local area. A proposal document was drawn up suggesting using the Trim Trail at Fawcetts Field recreational ground and send off to New Milton Town Council for consideration. We had more meetings in The House Martin and got in contact with our local parkrun Ambassadors, Malcolm White & Tamsyn Smith, who provided masses of help and guidence. A list of core volunteers and potential Run Directors was put together. We got in contact with New Forest District Council's Jamie Burton (Physical Activity & Partner Manager) who quickly offered for the Council to cover the start up costs, so we had one major hundle cleared early on 😁

At a meeting of the Town Council Amenities committee in January we got the seal of approval to use Fawcetts Field. From then on the parkrun UK HQ new event delivery system swung into action. Fast forward to 12th May and we were stood in Fawcetts Field running a dress rehersal event to check all the plans were good. All went well, so on Sunday 20th May we started the first official New Milton junior parkrun with 62 children completing the 2km 2.5lap course around the Trim Trail. It was a hugely satisfying moment and quite emotional, definitely the best running event I've helped organise and better than breaking the 2:30 marathon mark in 2017!

My son Cameron (in pink) and mate Ollie finishing New Milton junor parkrun #1

By the end of the month I was ready for camping trip number 2! Before that though I had a 3 night work trip to Cologne, Germany. Staying in the city centre there was plenty of miles of Rhine River paths to explore on the run (run tour video coming soon!).

Our second camping trip was for the half-term week staying at Treyarnon Bay Campsite in North Cornwall near Padstow. Weather was pretty good and I got some nice runs in, no focus on mileage/training, just getting out when the chance arose. I did do another nice SW Coast Path run with 12 miles from Treyarnon Bay to Padstow via Constantine Bay, Trevose Head, Harlyn Bay, Trevone Bay and Stepper Point. I video'd bits of the run again but this time in more of a "vlog" style with a bit more talking and reviewing of the Inov8 Parkclaw 275 GTX shoes I was waering as well as a Salomon Advanced Skin 3 ultra vest. Look out for a post with this soon too!

...and one last thing....

I'm really stoked to announce that I'm being invited to join the Alton Sports Ambassador program 😎 The program is designed to celebate local runners and their achievements, For me it means getting to try out bits of new kit, taking part in some interesting events and generally help promote running in the local area. Alton Sports have stores in Alton, Four Marks, Farnham and Eastleigh (very close to my work, so I'm in there a fair bit!), I can highly recommend popping in to see them if you're in the market for any running kit, especially for shoe advice. They are a lovely bunch of people, really enthusiastic and friendly!

As an Ambassador I've already been up to the site of this year's Reading Endure24 event (Alton Sports Blog Post all about it) with Mizuno to preview the course and try out some trail shoes. I'll be running at Endure24 on 9-10th June as part of a Mizuno/Alton Sports team. I’ve heard great things about this event, which is described as the ‘Glastonbury for runners’. The aim is to complete as many 8km laps in 24 hours in teams of 1(!) to 8. With be very tiring I'm sure, but I'm really looking forward to it!

Going for a Run with Alton Sports & Graham from Mizuno UK on the the Endure24 Course at Wasing Park, Reading

Practical testing of the Mizuno Wave Mujin 4 GTX shoe!

After Endure I'll  be running the Serpent Trail 50k race on the South Downs in early July and also have the Salisbury 5-4-3-2-1 50k trail race on the radar. I plan to run both of these events competitively, which means I’ll need to start getting some more time on my feet on the trails of the New Forest and up some decent hills! I'll be planning in an ultra run-to-work (c.27miles) as some point, since the New Forest is so dry at the moment and the mornings are very light.

Of course I'll be continuing to don my New Forest Runners vest and taking part in more of the excellent RR10 club cross country series on Wednesday nights through the summer. However, the focus of the summer is to relax more before potentially building for an autumn marathon, with either the  York or Bournemouth Marathons being options in October....

London Marathon 2018 - Race Day!

Race day started customarily early, in fact thanks to the dawn chorus in the woodland backing on to my brother's house in High Wcombe, it was just before my alarm went off at 5:25am! I'd slept well so was soon awake and up. Everything was laid out and ready to go, so after an early morinng pit stop I was dressed and munch on a couple of pre-made white pitta breads with sliced banana and raspberry jam, a bit more handy than my usual porridge as it didn't require going upstairs to the kitchen and potentially waking up my 9 month niece! Also meant I could continue eating breakfast in the car. It was damp and misty in the early light after a night of heavy thundery rain as I set off in the car for central London.

The well used routine of parking close to the race finish for an easy get away post-race was in use again. The car park is in the shadow of Westminster, a short walk along The Embankment to get the train from Charing Cross to the race start on Blackheath and within a mile of the finish area.

Driving into London Early on Race Morning

I was parked up in plenty of time, before 7am and soon on my way passing the Houses of Parliment and a Big Ben completely shrouded in scaffolding (that's going to spoil a few race photos this year!). The roads were already shut around Westminster for the race, with crews of workers unloading piles of crowd barriers from trucks and fixing on advertising banners. It's quite a surreal experience walking along a realtively quiet road which will be a buzzing marathon course swarming with spectators only a few hours later!

Strolling Along The Embankment to Charing Cross (Mile 25)

I got to Charing Cross Station in time to grab a double expresso and hop on the 07:25, destination Blackheath. The early trains are also a quiet experience, with only a moderate number of other runners getting on there and the intermediate stations. Arriving at Blackheath it was only 10-15min walk to the entrance to the blue start entrance and on to the UKA Club Championships enclosure down near the race start line.

The Train to Blackheath & Walking to the Blue Start Area

By now the sun was well up and with not a cloud in the sky it was already feeling warm. There was not much need for the tights and long sleeve long and jacket I had on. I would have been perfectly ok to be walking round in race kit only at 8am! I headed into the men's changing tent in the Champs start area (upgraded this year with the addition of a thin carpetted floor to sit on instead of just grass!) where I found Bournemouth AC's Ant Clark already reclined on the floor, so settled down for a catch up chat while waiting for others to turn up and fiddling with my race kit (shoe laces, gel belt, gels etc,,,,). 

Before long the tent was filling up with many familar faces to say hi to and swap notes on raining progress and targets for the race. It was now clear that this was likely going to be the hottest London on record, with the temperature nudging towards 20DegC before we'd even got to the start line. This did make pre-race prep easy, not need to stay wrapped up until the last minute or wear old t-shirts or bin bags to try and stay a bit warm! Instead we were standing around in race kit, caps, shades and dowsing water on bare skin to keep as cool as possible. I dropped my bag at the kit truck and got in the toilet queue for a last pit-stop while waiting for the marshalls to let us out on to Shooters Hill Road to loosen up (no need to 'warm up'!). The elite men were out jogging already so it was fun running celebrity spotting, including some all time greats, Eliud Kipchoge, Kenenisa Bekele and of course Mo Farah.

We were let out on to the road at about 9:40 and I easy jogged up the 200-300m stretch we had available and picked up to speed coming back the other way twice and that was it, didn't want to get too hot before the start. Then it was a case of lining up behind the wall of marshalls who would lead us around the roundabout on the road and up to the start. I got myself nicely to the front so by the time we were up to the start I was standing just behind Bekele in the elite line-up (you can see my hands up in the air on the BBC coverage when they are doing the elite introductions 😃) During the wait to start I was already damping myself down with water to maximise pre-race cooling.

The start is pretty tense, there's loud music playing, helicopters circling overhead, the public address system going and the general chatter of a pack of keen runners. So knowing we weren't moving anywhere for a few minutes I just shut my eyes and focused on my breathing for 10-20 breath cycles. Despite the hubbub I still found this settled me down and cleared my head ready for the task ahead....

For the last few weeks I had had my sights firmly set on another shot at going under 2hr30 and possibly even sub 2:29/28 for a new PB. If the weather had been more like last year I would have followed a similar plan of just running to the target pace and seeing what happened (without looking at my heart rate). But given the more challenging conditions I opted to keep the heart rate data visible on my Garmin watch and decided to give 2:30 pace a chance up to at least the Cutty Sark at 10km. At that point I'd make a decision on what to do for the rest of the race. My minimum target was to get round in under 2:45 so at least keep my London sub 2:45 streak going (6 years and counting!)

The elite intros over with for the TV cameras, we had an impromptu rendition of the National Anthem from the Coldstream Guards (or similar!) band, due to the Queen starting the race (via video link from Windsor castle), and suddenly we were off. The start is a bit of stampede up the road and despite being right up near the front I was soon running in a big crowd with a lot of people streaming past. I just went with it and after a mile or so things had settled down. I didn't have sight of anyone I knew so just stuck with the effort feeling a bit above reasonably comfortable. I wanted to get going at target pace and not start building up a time deficit on such a warm day, so I made sure I pushed on. Also I tend to find the first couple of miles harder than they should feel (in 2017 that feeling lasted until 11-12 miles!), so I wasn't worried.

I'd set my Garmin up so the automatic mile laps were turned off and the main screen just displayed 'Average Lap Time' and the overall timer. By hitting the lap button each time I passed a mile marker the average lap time figure would give me an accurate reading of my average pace up to and including the last mile completed. I also had a pace band on my other wrist with the timings for each mile for a 2:30 marathon (you can make your own custom band here) which I could use to check against the timing clock displayed at each mile marker or the timer on my GPS watch.

Passing Cutty Sark - Adopted the reverse cap look!

Mile 1 was more or less on target in 5:46 (2:30 pace is 5:44/M). The next few miles sped up as the road got less crowded & we headed down to the river at Woolwich, with the 3rd & 4th in 5:26 & 5:33 respectively. From there to Cutty Sark at 10km things felt ok, wih the pace hovering in the low 5:40s but I could just detect the sensatation of needing to raise the effort to keep on pace, especially on any slight upward gradient. The crowd support was fantastic, with the great weather bringing a lot of people out onto the streets which caused a few enthusiastic pace surges! By mile 9 I could definitely tell that the effort required to maintain 2:30 pace was creeping up already, my heart rate was rising close to overall race average levels (c. 167-168bpm) whenever I tried to push on a bit to maintain the speed. I had been soaking myself with water from the 1st water station at mile 3 and every station since (one a mile or so), but the heat was still having it's effect! It probably didn't help that there wasn't any water stations for the first 3 miles, so my body temperature got a headstart in the battle to keep it down....

Dowsing with water trying to cool down!  (Photo-Manol Dmitrov)

At around 10 miles I was still just about on target for 2:30 but made the decision to back off the effort and get my heart rate down to a more race-long manageable level. It was too early in the race, given the temperatures, to be pushing on in the hope of being able to maintain the pace to the finish. There was a strong possibility that it could go very wrong and end badly! I had two thoughts in my head, one was that having already bagged the sub 2:30 time last year I didn't have huge personal pressure to do it again  and the other was the wise words of TR from the Runners World forum Sub 3 thread that "You can only control the controllables". I decided that in the balance of things I was better off controlling my pace, cooling as much as possible, getting to the pub in a reasonable time and able to still stand and drink a beer!

High-fiving Pickburn Family Support Team

From there on it was a case of moderating the effort and keeping as cool as possible to the finish. Miles 12, 13 and 14 were actually a lot of fun. With the pressure off I could enjoy the athmosphere, passing my loudly cheering family (Wife Milly, son Cameron & my parents, Jill & George) near Bermondsey station, the ever breath-taking crossing of Tower Bridge and along The Highway. I went through halfway in 75:30, which banished any thoughts that a sub 2:30 might still be on the cards and confirmed the plan to get to the finish in one piece.

It was clear that the weather was great for spectators, there was a lot of them and making plenty of noise! There were several moments during the race where it was literally quite overwhleming, Tower Bridge is the obvious place.

Crossing Tower Bridge - Mind Blowing!

I'm still to better the experience of running pretty much solo down the centre of the road, crowds 4 or 5 deep on both sides with a clear view up the River Thames to St Pauls Cathedral and other famous landmarks. It makes me weil up just thinking about it.... Another section with great athmosphere is after you turn off The Highway and onto Narrow Street in Limehouse. The road goes from a broad 4 lane dual carriageway to a narrow(!) street lined with tall waterfront buildings, the crowds aren't as dense as in other places, but the buidlings do seem to amplify the sound they make!

Coming out of Limehouse we hit the start of the Isle of Dogs section. Historically this is my (and many others) least favourite part of the marathon. More more sparse crowds, until you reach Canary Wharf, coupled with the building fatigue in your legs and the thought of over 10 miles left to go, makes it mentally challenging. Although I had backing my effort off I was unsure just how much the temperature was going to effect me, so the mental fight was just a prominate as before. By this point I'd largely stopped paying attention to my mile split times, I had missed pressing the lap split button at a couple mile markers and had to double press at the next marker to keep the Average Lap Time data correct. So I wasn't really sure what kind of pace I was managing to sustain, looking back at the data I was around about 5:50-6:00/mile, but I did know my heart rate in the low 160's. My marathon heart rate from the 2017 race had averaged 168/169, so I was happy that I was keeping the lid on the effort. The next few miles were just a case of keeping going as we headed south through miles 16 & 17, there was a bit of headwind which which was quite nice as it helped manage the temperature a bit more. Mile 18 and 19 felt quite a slog as we came back north into Canary Wharf, but the crowds there are very uplifting and I started to get the sense that I was 'nearly there' with 6-7 miles to go. At this point I was now feeling confident that I was going to be able to maintain a similar sort of pace through to the finish and was starting to pass quite a few other runners. In the second half I was only passed by 5 runners, but passed 57. The effort level wasn't rising, but the discomfort in my legs and feet was, but nothing overly worrying. 

Coming back through Limehouse (round mile 21) a short guy with a beard, white cap and black vest with 'Boutique Marathon' logo on it (#31238 - Marc Lorenzo) caught up with me. We ran the next couple of miles back along The Highway, past The Tower of London and along Embankment, which gave a nice boost on a stretch which is normally a real drag. The crowds aroung the Tower were simply unbelievable, giving me a real emtional moment. The course dips downhill slightly just past the Tower at the mile 24 marker and I practically floated down the road on the noise generated on either side of the road, trying to hold back tears!

It's really interesting to look back and compare the pacing of those who finished in a similar time to me. The Strava website has a neat tool called 'Flyby' where you can play back the track of your run and of anyothers who did the same run and uploaded to the website. Check it out here for this year's marathon. Lets you see who you were running with and when who overtook who!

Strava Flyby View - Find out who was where when in a race!

Once alongside the River Thames, you're in 'One parkrun to go' territory and physiologically on the home straight. Although opinions can vary on this point as Embankment is the scene of many a death march to the finish which can seemingly last a lifetime.... This year not being in total eye-balls-out-mode it was not particularly comfortable but certainly managable for me. Due to the heat quite a few familiar runners had called it quits on anything special tme-wise and were just cruising/jogging into the finish. I felt that I should still do the race some justice and kept my pace consistant in the high 5 minute miles. Also I didn't really want to slow down, in my head I was telling myself that keeping the speed up was cutting the time to reach the pub and a pint! It was definitely one of the more enjoyable trips down Embankment in my runs at London to date, in the sunshine with huge crowd support 😎

The 2nd to Last Turn - Off Embankment
& Into Parliment Square

At mile 25.5(ish) I turned right in front of Big Ben and into Parliment square and it really was a case of 'nearly there'. The run down Birdcage walk towards Bukingham Palace was superb with a beautiful green canopy of newly sprouting tree leaves forming a coolling tunnel to run up as the 800m, 600m, 400m to go signs ticked by going past St James Park. A final right turn by the Victoria Monument and the finish line was in sight, I made a small effort to muster a bit of a sprint finish, but it didn't come to much (although my last 400m or so did register as 5:34/M on my Garmin). I did remember to try to put on a celebratory finish arms out stretched pose across the line, but it ddn't come out very well! Check out the finish line footage in the video below for proof, Also including a few other clips from the BBC coverage of the race, including the start (i'm jumping up and down behind Daniel Wanjiru!)

Post race medal pose with marafuning friend Ryan Snell

My finish time of 2:33:15 wasn't what I'd hoped for in the run-up to the race, but in light of the conditions it was very satisfying (for the record it was my 5th fastest marathon) especially since it got me my highest London finishing position of 53rd, not including the elites. With the benefit of hindsight I think I hit a good balance between energy expended/fatigue/pace. I could have pushed harder and come in maybe a minute or so faster, which would have pushed me up the rankings, but with the penalty of significantly more recovery time required. Since then I've scored my highest ever finish position in an RR10 series XC race with 3rd at Stony Cross 10 days post marathon and a solid 34:30 (3rd again!) at the mutli terrain Lymington 10k threes weeks on and I'm pretty sure continuing with the sub 2:30 attempt would have ended badly (and possibly before the finish line!). 

With Parents Jill & George, God-Mother Lesley & Son Cameron
(photo by Wife, Milly!)

Overall it was a fantastic race and I've extended my streak of sub :245 London's to 7 years. Post race there was a fair amount of hot weather chat in the finish area before walking out to meet my family on Horse Guards Parade. We then heading down Whitehall for the customary pint (or two) of London Pride in the sun outside the Red Lion, catching up with various marathoning friends from the Runner World sub3 forum.

We headed back to the car (thankfully less than half a mile from the pub!) and got on back home. a quick change and shower and we were back out again for a excellent BBQ at our friends Jennine and Tom's place, with the added bonus of a fantastic hot tub to soak the race aches and pains away in, with a beer 😎. Downside was that I had to share the hot-tub with half a doazn kids to start with, but they did get out and let me have a little bit of time to myself!

So that's spring marathoning done for another year. Bit of a strange one with such cold weather for most of the training and then a hot race. I'm confident that the heat adapation training I did in the 10 days leading up to the race (extended hot sauna sessions and overdressed treadmill running) did help me on the day. I'm sure i was in shape, but I would have needed to do it a lot more heat work consistantly over a longer time period to have stood any chance of getting another sub 2:30 time in the race day conditions...

So now it's time for a bit of break from trying for fast times over 26.2 miles. I'm eyeing up an autumn race, with either York or Bournemouth on the cards. Before that I'm planning on getting a couple of trail 50k races in as well as as many of the summer's club RR10 XC races as work/life allows. There'll also be a week (or maybe two) of running on the Cornish South West Coast Path. 

Plus I've also got some exciting news on the near horizon, but that can wait for another day 😉